Advance Australia Backs Tony Abbott

Advance Australia, a conservative version of GetUp! that appeared somewhat recently, has announced they have raised $400,000 to help back key Liberal seats, including Tony Abbott. In my previous piece about Advance Australia, I scoured their website to gain an understanding of what they stood for, and the answers were predictable. It’s almost rather sad, therefore, that it is not too surprising to find out they are backing a man who recently defended a convicted paedophile.

I already stated in my last piece that I did not really see the need for a conservative GetUp! equivalent, seeing as there are already many of them in the form of numerous lobby groups and the Church’s influence on our politics. That is not to say that Advance Australia does not have the right to exist and rally followers; it has as much right to do that as GetUp! does. What is quite funny about the whole situation, though, is that the Coalition and their supporters have forced the AEC to run investigations to see if GetUp! is an affiliate of the Labor Party. If so, it would lose its status as an independent group run by its members. Inevitably, the result came back negative – there was no connection between the ALP and GetUp., and as a member of GetUp! myself I am relieved by that verdict.

By this same logic, an investigation should be run to test the same connections between Advance Australia and the Coalition to ensure they are not breaking any rules. I don’t see that taking place, however, as whatever Labor is guilty of, the Coalition does worse but always plays it off as legitimate. It is also sad that the Coalition’s supporters, and members of Advance Australia, will probably completely overlook this hypocrisy and contradiction. This is what happens when you’re led to believe one side is always right – whenever the team a person goes for gets called out for something, especially if it’s something the other side is also accused of, they scream bias.

So, main points to take away from this:

Advance Australia has announced they are backing a man who feels bad his child abusing friend got jail time (no where near enough of it, the wretch).

You can be sure Advance Australia will not receive the same scrutiny from the current government that GetUp! has received.

And always question everything, including the party (or parties) you follow. No one in infallible, and we cannot become complacent simply because one side or other is ‘your side’.